wfn.org | UMNS# 05098-Sacred space can enhance, prayer, meditation

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Sacred space can enhance, prayer, meditation

Feb. 16, 2005	 News media contact:   Matt  Carlisle * (615) 742-5470*
Nashville {05098}

NOTE: Other resources related to this article are available online at
http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=6738.

A UMC.org Feature
By Renee Elder*

If big family rooms and state-of-the-art kitchens reflect our love of
food and family, shouldn't our relationship with God also claim a
special space in our homes?

For many, the answer is an emphatic "yes."

"If you have one place where you settle down to pray or meditate on a
regular basis, you can move into it faster and more gently; it's your
space for that purpose," says the Rev. Theonia Amenda, a retired United
Methodist minister and covenant guidance counselor in Slinger, Wis. "I
have a room-it's a guest room, really, but it's also my meditation
room-and I have symbols around me that help me focus."

It might be a room in your home, a spot in your garden or an easy chair
by the living room window. But designating a special place for spiritual
reflection enriches meditation, prayer, Bible reading and journaling,
says the Rev. Elizabeth J. Canham, director of Stillpoint Ministries in
Black Mountain, N.C.

"I set aside a room in my house that is like a meditation chapel, with
icons on the wall and some prayer shawls," Canham says.

She spends about an hour in her special room each morning.

"I make it pleasurable. I take my high-test coffee," Canham says. "I use
an oil lamp and sometimes put on a piece of music. I think it needs to
be personalized. There's no one-size-fits-all."

Canham recommends decorating with items that are meaningful-perhaps
pebbles from a stream, religious icons, beads or candles.

"It can be difficult to sit and pray and meditate, and it's good to have
something you can pick up and be with," she says. "You can make a ritual
of coming to the table or altar, lighting a candle and doing some simple
stretching and bowing to begin. It's a way to make the experience very
intentional."

When the weather is nice, she often ventures outdoors.

"I built a little meditation walk in the woods," says Canham, an
Episcopal priest who came to the United States from England in 1981.
"It's a simple path, not a labyrinth, but you can follow it as it twists
around."
The outdoors also beckons the Rev. Brian Wingo to spiritual reflection,
though in a less formal setting.

"My wife and I both love to garden, and that is a spiritual thing in
many ways for us," says Wingo, pastor of Pleasant Green United Methodist
Church in Durham, N.C. "We have statuary and benches we put out. I'm not
sure how intentional it is, but it's invitational. If you feel a need
for a place to think, reflect or pray, it's there."

Wendy Wright, a Catholic and professor of theology at Creighton
University in Omaha, Neb., has written a book, Sacred Dwelling: A
Spirituality of Family Life, that urges readers to seek the holy in
their daily lives.

"People often experience the dining table as a place where, when the
family gathers, they share not only food but the details of their day,"
Wright says. "It's a place of emotional and intellectual exchange. Yet
we tend to dismiss the sacredness of these ordinary spaces."

It only takes a nook or corner to define a space for spiritual
reflection, she says.

"I've known people who have created little prayer rooms in whatever
physical space they could find inside their house," she says. "It may be
a basement or even a closet area where they can be reflective, or maybe
just in a bedroom chair late at night. I think people have to be
creative."

Before setting up a spiritual retreat, reflect on what fuels your
relationship with God, says Amenda, who works with a spiritual formation
academy and covenant community in Wisconsin.

"Nature speaks to me of God, so my focus is outside," she says. "There's
a huge old tree outside my window that speaks to me as being grounded.
And I also have a picture of Christ in front of me. Someone else might
sit in a room with a candle because it helps illuminate the light of
Christ within them."

Canham recently wrote a book, A Table of Delight: Feasting with God in
the Wilderness, that examines the wilderness theme in the context of
spiritual struggle. The ideas can be used in a domestic setting, she
says.

"I talk about entering the desert as a time of struggling with
spirituality but also a time of holy encounter," Canham explains. "It's
about choosing a place of beauty and silence in order to be more open to
God."

# # #

*Elder is a freelance writer in Raleigh, N.C.

News media contact: Matt Carlisle, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5153 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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More Christian living resources are available in the "My Spiritual
Journey" section of UMC.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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